With austerity cuts biting British pockets ever harder, MPs have set a new record - £103 million claimed in expenses for the year 2013/2014. This comes just 5 years after the expenses scandal, and includes nearly £1 million on foreign trips. Meanwhile in the Lords, Lib Dem peer Baroness Grender has complained that the £300 a-day tax-free allowance she receives is not sufficient and makes it unaffordable to give up her day job. And IPSA, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, created in the wake of the 2009 scandal, is recommending that all investigations into MPs’ expenses be carried out in secret, to ‘safeguard’ the reputations of MPs.